Exercise : 7 Application server platforms in e-commerce

1. Why is the perception getting stronger that integration will become a critical factor in coming days?

E-commerce systems are online systems which is used to transfer goods, services and transfer money in a secure environment. There are many such online systems like ebay, Amazon which gives us the service of buying and selling any products in a convinient way. Due to this facility it has become in universally and is in high demand.

Therefore in this scenario where there are heaps of such systems, integration becomes a vital factor for its success. The factors which could make integration of the systems a critical factors in coming generation can be:

a. Reduction of costs.

b. Integrity of transactions

c. Security of transactions

d. Accurate decision due to availability of information.

e. Management has greater control.

Reference :

Huuhtanen, J 2004. Critical Success Factors in Integration of E-Commerce and Financial Information Systems. Retrieved on April 10, 2010 from http://www.pafis.shh.fi/graduates/juhhuu01.pdf.

Ecommerce System : Tailored to Australia Business environment. Retrieved on April 10, 2010 from http://www.webdynamic.com.au/ecommerce-system.html.

2. What is the relationship of AJAX to JQuery (jquery.com) and the lightweight Web 2.0 javascript framework called MooTools (mootools.net) within the enterprise software architecture?

AJAX(Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is a pure javascript application framework which works on client-side to create an interactive web application. AJAX has made possible exchanging of data with server without the neccessity of reloading the current pagem making the webpage dynamic and interactive.

"JQuery is collection of Javascript Library that simplifies traversing HTM document, event handling, animating and Ajax interaction for Rapid Web Development by making it easier and faster. (jQuery.com)''. It was developed to change the way javascript was written. jQuery library is usually a single JavaScript file, containing all its common DOM, event, effects, and Ajax functions. Therefore it makes calling ajax functions possible just by calling $.ajax and associated methods.

"MooTools a modular object-oriented JavaScript Web application framework designed to create powerful, flexible and cross browser code with its cohrents and well documented API (mootools.net)". This framework built in manipulation of CSS, DOM elements, native JavaScript objects, Ajax requests, DOM effects and more. MooTools makes use of Ajax easier by providing classes with methods such as onRequest, onSuccess, onComplete etc.

Hence both frameworks make use of Ajax a lot easier and simpler to use.

Reference :

Ajax. The colabarative Application Platform. Retreived on April 10, 2010 from http://ajax.org

jQuery. jQuery: The Write Less, Do More, JavaScript Library. Retreived on April 11, 2010

from http://jquery.com/

jQuery. Wikipedia. 2010.Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Retreived on April 11, 2010 from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jquery

MooTools. MooTools a compact javascript framework. Retrieved on April 11, 2010 from

http://mootools.org

MooTools. Wikipedia. 2010. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Retrieved on April 11, 2010 from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MooTools

3. What are the similarities between the object-oriented development using model-view-controller (MVC) in Ruby on Rails 2.0 and Action Script 2.0 (Flash animations)?

Ruby is an object oriented scripting language that combines syntax inspired by Perl, SmallTalk,Eiffel and Lisp. And Action Script 2.0 is a scripting based language used for developing web application and software in Adobe Flash Player platform.

The similarities between these language are both have open classes. i.e. it lets you add methods or property to an existing class. So you can add method or property to that class outside the class definition whenever you want which is also often called as monkey-patching. This functionality can be a major drawback if it is performed carelessly.

Reference :

ActionScript. Wikipedia. 2010.Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Retreived on April 11, 2010 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ActionScript

AS2 OOP: Class Structure, 2009. Retrieved on April 11, 2010 from http://www.kirupa.com/developer/oop2/AS2OOPClassStructure7.htm

Ruby (programming language). Wikipedia. 2010. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Retrieved on April 11, 2010 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_(programming_language)

4. What does it mean to develop RESTful practices into our web applications?

Representational State Transfer (REST) is not a new technology or framework but it simply is a architectural style which specifies certain set of architecture constraints.The main idea of this style is to use a uniform interface for all services, which means that each Web site provides the same service. REST has been applied for describing desired Web Architecture, to identify existing problems and to compare alternative solutions. The Goals of RESTful practice includes:

a. Scalability of the component interaction.

b. Generality of interfaces.

c. Independent deployment of components.

d. Intermediary component to reduce latency, enforce securit and encapsulate legacy systems.

Reference :

Wilde, E. 2004. Representational State Transfer, Retrieved on April 11, 2010 from http://dret.net/lectures/web-spring09/rest

Representational State Transfer. Wikipedia. 2010.Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Retreived on April 11, 2010

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_State_Transfer

Nene, D. 2009. Representational State Transfer Explained. Retrieved on April 12, 2010 from http://www.slideshare.net/dnene/rest-representational-state-transfer-explained